We landed in Shusharti Bay and watched the sun burn up the fog and turn the skies a brilliant shade of blue. Everyone is always a bit tired after an overnight so the day was pretty relaxed. We toured around the islets in Otto and ventured up the creek a short ways at high tide.

For the first time in a while we watched cruising boats motor by the anchorage. The next morning Kolby headed to Dylan rock for an epic dive – octopi, wolf eels, ratfish and huge schools of fish while Fynn and I walked a bleach bear amble along the shore, turning over rocks and gobbling whatever he was finding beneath.  Midday we made a pit stop at Hussar Point to soak up some sun on the beach and look for a cave that is somewhere in the vicinity. No lock on the cave, but we found few good pieces of beach glass. We anchored just outside of Port Hardy and discussed our plans.  We just aren’t sure if we want to race through this part of Vancouver Island or explore it a little more. Either way we were headed to Port McNeil to stock up on food  (the fridge was empty) and go from there.

Was perfectly uneventful. We sailed downwind half the way and motored the other half. The seas were small. We had waffles for dinner and watched the albatross’ swooping through the wave troughs. There was a glorious sunset and an uneventful night. As we crossed Niwiti bar in the morning we watched a dozen or so sea otters check us out. We dropped the anchor at 1 pm and revealed in the sunshine. That is a good and easy 24 hour trip with two littles!

Our last night in Gwaii Haanas was on the southern tip near Cape St. James. It is hard to imagine a place like this exists and remains so pristine. The beach is velvety smooth sand and runs for over a kilometre. Several streams empty into the bay and we saw deer foraging among the rocks. Following a stream up the beach we set up camp among the smooth grant boulders and played in the sand and stream. We also washed the diapers! The sun was warm and the beach combing was good. What more could you want before a 24 hour crossing?